The Wave Theory of Angels — Alison Macleod

This is a story that unfolds across two far-flung centuries, across two worlds. In each, the lives of a father and his two daughters are about to be catapulted into crisis.

France. 1284. In the heat of an August night, Christina-sister of Marguerite, daughter of the heretic sculptor Giles of Beauvais-struggles to keep a secret. The year is also 2001. We're in Chicago, where Christina Carver, daughter of rebel physicist Dr Giles Carver, also keeps a secret, even from her sister Maggie. When a bell rings for matins-when a telephone rings in the middle of the night-Christina will fail to wake and all six lives will change forever.

The Wave Theory of Angels is a story of attractions, both cosmic and earthly. The riddles of magic, metaphysics and modern-day science transport the reader from the enchantment of the thirteenth century to the disenchantment of the twenty-first and back again. Through it all, one question persists: What is the real force of the imagination?